I've gotten the same advice from multiple laywers: I don't have a case (deja vu!). My past experience in similar situations is that they really mean I'll recover less than their time costs, which is very different. I expect I'll accomplish something if I persevere. So I guess it's time to branch out and describe the situation to friends for probably-not-legal-advice advice.
I lost my job at Amazon a couple of weeks ago. The process that led to this was initiated and controlled by my manager. I believe they did this in retaliation for my escalating concerns about their behavior to their manager and HR. Those concerns were centered around them reprimanding me in front of my team for not meeting expectations they hadn't communicated to us, which were different from expectations that had been explicitly communicated in writing. Those expectations were around availability and response time for on-call duties. However, attorneys tell me that this isn't a valid retaliation claim, because salaried employees don't have hours protections. There is an outstanding internal ethics investigation on this issue, initiated before I found out for sure that I was being terminated, and ongoing since then.
One of the attorneys I reached out to suggested that I request my personnel record from Amazon. MA labor laws say they must provide it within 5 days. Today is day 14. They acknowledged the request on day 2. On day 7 they again acknowledged it, verified the original request date, and said they would fulfill it before the required deadline (which had already passed?). Attorneys tell me I have no civil claim for this violation; I can just report them to the AG and they will get letter telling them to eventually comply.
When I was terminated, I was offered a severance agreement with a relatively small payment, in exchange for giving up any employment rights/violation claims I might have. They gave me 21 days to consider. Today is day 15, so I have 6 days left to decide. Attorneys tell me I have no claim related to this deadline and their failure to provide the legally required personnel record. I believe this is coercive on their part. One attorney told me not to sign and that I should keep asking them for the records; maybe that will leave some future possible action open? Unfortunately that attorney also said that I'd probably spend more hiring them than I'd recover. Slightly related, the agreement says they are under no obligation to provide severance, which isn't true because they promised it under a different agreement signed earlier in the process.
While reading the law around the personnel record request, I learned that Amazon broke another state labor law months ago when they started the process that led to my termination. I found out mid-process that the situation would prevent me from transferring or being promoted, and MA law says they have 10 days to inform me when that sort of thing goes into my personnel record so I can rebut it. As far as I can tell, from talking to dozens of other people who experiences the process, it's company policy to keep that situation secret. Unlike the previous concerns which might apply to just me, this one feels bigger. I suspect Amazon has violated the rights of hundreds of MA employees in this way. Again, attorneys tell me I have no civil claim for this violation; I can just report them to the AG and nothing will happen.
My experience so far is that there's a ~6 day lag in correspondence with a human at Amazon for HR-related inquiries, so I don't have a window to discuss even the severance/records thing with Amazon before making a decision.
What do you think I should do?
Ideas: Take the severance Call/email another dozen attorneys Use extraordinary measures to reach someone in HR soon enough to ask for an extension on the severance decision Represent myself in a civil claim for the personnel record law violations and their impact on my ability to make informed severance agreement decisions Find other Amazon folks with one or both of the same personnel record law violations _____?